Jarvis on target as Tigers beat Tykes to stay unbeaten pre-season

GET IN: Will Jarvis celebrates his winner against Barnsley. Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 0 Barnsley

Pre-season Friendly

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 4,548

By Jack Harrison

Hull City continued their impressive pre-season form tonight, beating Barnsley 1-0 in a Yorkshire derby at the MKM Stadium as Liam Rosenior prepares for his first full season in charge.

The match started frantically, with both sides looking to impose themselves.

Will Jarvis was brought down in the penalty area in the ninth minute, but if there was any contact, the referee deemed it to be minimal.

Just a couple of minutes later, the visitors should have taken the lead. Nicholas Cadden produced some lovely work down the left-hand side and fired a low cross across the face of goal to Oli Shaw, who somehow managed to clear the crossbar from two yards out. It may only be pre-season, but you won’t see a worse miss all year.

Barnsley may have tasted defeat in last season’s League One play-off final, but they looked every bit a Championship outfit in the early stages.

Former Tiger Herbie Kane started the game in central midfield for the Tykes, and he tried his luck with an audacious chip from the halfway line in the 20th minute, but Matt Ingram managed to retreat in time to save comfortably.

The third-tier side continued to pile on the pressure in the 23 rd minute when James Norwood turned beautifully and fired a fierce shot from 25 yards out that stung the palms of Ingram and went behind for a corner.

Rosenior cut a despondent figure in the technical area and will have been surprised to see his side struggle considering their impressive run since he took over last year.

Despite the bright start from the visitors, The Tigers opened the scoring against the run of play in the 31st minute. The breakthrough came when Lewie Coyle clipped a cross to the back post from the byline towards Jarvis, who was completely unmarked, didn’t catch his volley cleanly, but nonetheless the ball nestled into the bottom right corner.

The goal vitalised City, and Jarvis almost added a second just three minutes later, but his low shot from inside the penalty area was parried into the path of Benjamin Tetteh, whose effort clipped the top of the crossbar.

Jarvis was looking like a player who could cause some serious headaches for Championship defenders, and almost scored again when the ball found him at the back post in the 35th minute, but his volley – which was struck cleaner than the effort that produced his goal – was impressively turned round the post by Ben Killip.

On the stroke of half-time, Oscar Estupinan slid a lovely ball into Tetteh who cut the ball back into the penalty area, but the box was void of any black and amber shirts.

The second half began slowly, with the strike pairing of Estupinan and Tetteh struggling to link up effectively.

The first chance of the half came in the 57th minute when Ryan Longman cut inside onto his left foot and curled an effort towards the far corner, but it deflected off a Barnsley head and went behind for a corner.

A minute later, Tetteh found himself through on goal, but could only lift a weak effort over the bar after controlling with his chest.

In the 69th minute, Longman broke into the penalty area from the right, but his cutback was skied over the bar by Xavier Simons. That was the final chance created by the starting line-up as Rosenior made 11 changes in the 74 th minute, with Thimothee Lo-Tutala, Jacob Greaves, Brandon Fleming, Alfie Jones, Cyrus Christie, Ozan Tufan, Allahyar, Harry Vaughan, Liam Delap, Jean Michael Seri, and Regan Slater entering the field.

Lo-Tutala was instantly called into action, turning a long-range free kick behind for a corner.

In the 86th minute, Fleming’s deflected cross almost ended up in the back of the net, but a Barnsley stopper scrambled across in time to keep it out.

Just a minute later, Manchester City loanee Delap should’ve opened his City account on his debut. Vaughan got in behind on the left-hand side and rolled it into his path – Delap could’ve finished first-time, but took a touch before unleashing a shot from close-range that was blocked in heroic fashion.

That ended up being the last chance of the game, but the fans seemed satisfied with the performance as a puff of orange smoke appeared from the North-East corner of the ground.

The game was won in a 15-minute spell at the end of the first-half, and City saw out the second-half in complete control.

The Tigers travel to Bradford on Saturday to face the Bantams at Valley Parade.